Friday, October 31, 2008

Empirically Speaking

The premiere scientific journal in this country, Nature, for the first time in its 139 year history of publication, has endorsed a presidential candidate. Wanna guess who?

The Oval Office is not a debating chamber, nor is it a faculty club. As anyone in academia will know, a thoughtful and professorial air is not in itself a recommendation for executive power. But a commitment to seeking good advice and taking seriously the findings of disinterested enquiry seems an attractive attribute for a chief executive. It certainly matters more than any specific pledge to fund some particular agency or initiative at a certain level — pledges of a sort now largely rendered moot by the unpredictable flux of the economy.

This journal does not have a vote, and does not claim any particular standing from which to instruct those who do. But if it did, it would cast its vote for Barack Obama.

2 comments:

Blaize said...

Sorry again about the bummer poem I quoted on the last set of comments.

Here. This is better:
I was talking to Dad about the ballot, because he and Mom already voted, and I wanted his information on the California ballot initiatives.

Dad said, "I was talking to someone, and he couldn't decide how he was going to vote on Proposition 8. He was swinging both ways."

Dad was very proud. He made that joke up all by himself.

arlopop said...

See - that's better. But round our house it's called Prop H8.

By the by, why is it most of the people doing the heavy lifting to defeat it are straight? The gay community seems either resigned or fucking lazy. Get off your asses queer culture - it's your god damned future - fucking do something!!